Simple steps to buying a home

• Our commitment to you

Your sales consultant will provide you with a copy of your reservation form. This contains full details of your new home, plus contact details for your solicitor and ours.

Please contact your solicitor as soon as you have reserved your new home, and let them know the details of your purchase and our contact details. This speeds up the process, allowing our solicitor to send the missive. If you don’t have a solicitor in place when you reserve, your sales consultant can recommend one to you.

• Property management details

If there are property managers for your development, your sales consultant will provide information about them, including estimated costs. The property manager takes care of the day-to-day maintenance of the development, such as landscaping and repairs to communal areas.

• Information Giving Meeting (IGM)

You will meet with your sales consultant and site manager to view drawings of your new home and the development. Our team will take you through the information checklist (part two of your reservation form) to make sure we have given you clear, complete information.

• Mortgage

If you don’t have an arrangement in place, we can recommend an independent financial advisor who specialises in new home mortgages. They will help you find the right mortgage to suit your personal requirements.

• Concluding the missive

From the date of making your reservation, you have two weeks to conclude the missive on your new Westpoint home. Our solicitor will forward our missive for the property directly to your solicitor. They will review this, and arrange a meeting for you to sign the document. Your solicitor will then return the missive to our solicitor. It’s at this point your deposit is due.

• Your home, your choice

Now your missive is concluded and your deposit is paid, it’s time to make your home your own.

Your new homes co-ordinator will arrange a time for you to visit our sales centre to go through all the options. These include kitchen units, worktops, handles and glass splash backs, bathroom and en-suite wall tiles, and paint colours. Feel free to bring along fabric samples and home decor magazines. You may also want to bring a friend to help you decide – they’re very welcome.

Now’s also time to consider any extras you want to add. These can include remote control garage doors, flooring, electrical fittings and lots more.

• Choosing your extras

Once you have chosen your features, our new homes co-ordinator will complete your order and ask you to sign it. You will pay for your optional extras when you order them.

It’s best to make your selections as early as you can. The availability of optional extras depends on the build programme for your property. Your sales consultant will let you know the final deadline for making your decisions.

It’s rare, but sometimes we may have to make selections on your behalf. For example, this could happen if we are repeatedly unable to contact you.

If the property you have reserved is already completed, the kitchen and bathroom choices may have been selected by our interior designer and installed. Just ask your sales consultant for details.

• When can you move in?

During the early stages of construction, your sales consultant will give you an estimated completion date. This is our initial indication of when you’ll be able to move in, narrowed down to a three-month window.

Then, once your new home is at an advanced stage, your sales consultant will give you a better estimate of your entry date.

Once your property has been signed-off by NHBC and building control it’s almost time for you to move in – you’ll get a confirmed date at least seven days before your completion. This is when we get in touch with your solicitor to legally complete your purchase.

Until then, your sales consultant will keep you up-to-date with the progress of your new home.

• What could affect your move-in date?

At the early stages it’s hard to be certain about timing. For example, heavy snowfall, storms and extreme cold can cause delays. When the building becomes wind and watertight and the services are connected, we’ll give you a much more reliable move-in date.

• When it’s time to move in

Once your home is ready, you’ll be invited to a familiarisation meeting where you’ll be shown the following:

• How to operate your central heating system, hot water and any other systems
• Where the main switches, consumer unit and stopcock are located
• How to ‘run in’ your new home
• How to maintain your new home
• How the warranties and guarantees work
• How our customer service procedures work

• Finishing the communal areas of your development

Every housing development is different. However, it’s likely you’ll move in before we complete all the work to communal areas, such as landscaping. We may also have to complete boundary fences or walls, and final surfacing to the roadways. We always work to keep any disruption to a minimum, and make sure we provide you with safe, clean access to your home.